Grace Notes

Where’s the Timpani?

In hiring musicians for our February program of Handel’s Water Music, we  booked a timpanist. But when Jo received the scores she’d ordered, she discovered there was no score for timpani. Concerned about this, she immediately contacted timpanist Jonathan Hess and broke the news to him. “What will you do?” she asked, thinking he’d be upset.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” he said. “In fact, that’s not at all surprising. You know, Handel wrote this music to be performed from a barge on the Thames River. There was simply no room for timpani on that barge, so he didn’t score for it.” (A typical set of timpani consists of two large drums.) Here’s a quote from the BBC website that speaks to this issue:

Unlike many pieces Handel wrote, the original score for Water Music doesn't survive, and none of the later versions exactly match. The piece is usually split into three separate suites made up of 22 self-contained movements, but no one is quite sure how they fit together, in what order the movements come, or even whether Water Music was actually performed in its entirety  in July 1717 or created for different occasions. Another mystery: how on earth did Handel squeeze a harpsichord and timpani (kettle drums), which are used in most versions of Water Music, into a barge? (Most probably he didn't take the risk, and added them to the score later.)

“But how can you play if you don’t have a score?” Jo asked. “Oh,” he said, “not a problem. I’ll just work from the 2nd trumpet part and improvise. That’s usually what we do for the Water Music.”